I’ve been dreaming for a while now about updating the chairs in our living room. The ones we had weren’t a matching pair, but they were the right color for my living-room-color-scheme and I thought they worked well enough for the room. Especially since we already had them.

Our mismatched-already-had-them living room chairs, very early in our living room set up

They also were comfortable, though we honestly rarely sat in them. We mostly just sat on the couch, and after we got the rug I started to sit on the floor more.

I had kind of been drooling over this guy for a while, but the price tag stopped me from pursuing it. It’s Crate & Barrel’s Klyne collection (http://www.crateandbarrel.com/furniture/chairs/klyne-chair-and-a-half/s237445) The plan was to try to find a similar chair and a half in a similar color. I have been trying to incorporate a burnt orange into the room for a while but haven’t found anything quite right. I also love the couch with chaise in this collection in a lovely gray color, so maybe it’ll stay on the list for future major-living-room-upgrade some time in the future when we can afford to spend money on things like awesome furniture. (Greer and I actually went to Crate and Barrel a while back to check if the thing is actually comfortable, partially in hopes that it wouldn’t be so I could stop pining for it. It’s amazingly comfortable. So now I want it more.)

When Paul’s grandfather passed away a few weeks ago, we went to Wichita. The day after the funeral, we went to his home with a U-Haul and our three families (My parents-in-law, Paul and I and Paul’s brother Keith and his wife Emily) with the goal of taking home a few momentos. While we were there I kind of fell in love with this green velvety chair in his living room, and Emily and I decided it definitely needed to be in my craft room. Turns out, it had a mate in another room, and so one chair that made me happy turned into a total revamp of 4 (yes, 4) rooms in our house.

Most of those rooms are still not ready. In two cases, time is the problem. In the third, I’m just not coming up with a great way to rearrange the furniture that is in there, but I’ll talk more about those later.

For now, here are some shots of our new-and-improved living room.

Changes:

New-to-us green chairs replaced mismatched brown and tan chairs, while also adding a really awesome pop of color which is something I have been craving for quite a while. We already had those brown throw pillows (Mom gave them to us, she had relocated them to her basement then passed them along when they matched our living room.) The brown ottomans came in a set with the longer brown ottoman that used to sit under the window(also from Mom, a Christmas gift). The chairs are in great shape and are really comfortable, especially with an ottoman to prop your feet on! I am thinking about relocating that sewing machine cabinet and plant, but haven’t decided for sure yet. I think the plant for sure has to go elsewhere, just because it is too crowded. We also plan to hang a clock or a shelf with a clock on it above the sewing machine cabinet. My search for a clock has not gone well. I’ve actually been searching for months and haven’t come up with anything quite right.

That art on the left wall is also something we brought from Wichita. It was done by a Wichita-local artist and has a whole list of shows that it has been in on the back, but we haven’t done much research on the artist herself. The green blanket on the couch is actually a shawl, but it’s the right color.

That radio cabinet (in front of the window, between the green chairs) is also something we brought with us from Wichita. It’s very cool and everything still works, it has a turntable and a radio. Paul and I did a little bit of radio-surgery to fix the tuner, which didn’t work when we brought it home. The string that made the tuner work had broken, and it took a few tries, but we were able to replace it. (We ended up using light blue embroidery thread. The light blue makes no different, the embroidery thread seemed like it would be strong and hold up well. Also, I already had it.)

On top of the radio are a couple of other neat mementos/heirlooms. On the right there is an old handguide for Electrical Engineers (which is what Paul is) that we found in his grandfather’s bookshelf, and on top of it is a tiny spy-cam that we found in a closet. On the left is another very cool old camera. Still not sure if they work.

The vase of flowers is actually something I am very proud of. Those artificial yellow glads were hanging on the posts around the dance floor at our wedding, and I’ve had them in a bag upstairs ever since, hoping to find a good use for them. I thought they would look great in a tall vase, but wasn’t sure where to put them. Once we put that radio under the window I knew that was where I wanted them to go. The vase was a wedding gift from Paul’s aunt and uncle who live near Wichita. The glads were a little too tall, so I cut them down to size and filled the vase with glass marbles (mostly white and clear with a few yellow ones mixed in) so it wouldn’t tip over.

That ottoman that was under the window is now next to the TV(the entrance to the living room is just to the left). The wreath hanging above it was a gift from my parents in memory of Paul’s grandpa. I also added the tiny basket with the yellow liner to the right to wrangle Netflix DVDs and library movies. Also to add some more yellow to the room, since that is supposed to be one of the room’s accent colors and it wasn’t around much.

This is what it looks like standing in the kitchen looking into the living room.Paul’s grandfather also had some awesome old suitcases in his basement, and they were also in just the right color.

That round white one on top? Guess what it really is.

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Think of something crazier

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It’s a hairdryer!

This lamp is also something kind of fun that Paul really wanted from his grandpa’s house. It’s actually meant to be hanging, but we couldn’t decide on a good place to hang it, and while we were standing in the living room with Paul holding it up, a light went on! (har har)

Ok. If we’re totally honest I wasn’t completely sold on it at first. But it does look great when it’s lit up (I had only ever seen it off) and he really wanted it. So what was I to do? Part of what was also throwing me was coming up with a place to hang it. In the end, this looks pretty cool, the shelf look pretty awful beforehand and we didn’t have to screw 5 holes in the ceiling to find a stud! (like we did with the pot rack in the kitchen) I would definitely like to have it hanging over an armchair in a cozy little corner someday, but said cozy little corner doesn’t exist in this particular house. Someday! Someday the lamp will have a perfect home, and we’ll be glad to have a little piece of LaVerne around.

An overview of the other half of the room:

So that’s how one room has shaped up! Three more are in the works, including what I was afraid was going to be a super daunting project. Luckily, that project worked out easier than I thought it would, but more on that later!